City pool opens Saturday; talk of adding sprinkler park

The old wading pool at the Gallipolis Municipal Pool may potentially be replaced with sprinkler park.

Dean Wright | Daily Tribune

Time to cool off

The Gallipolis Municipal Pool may see on average 70 to 80 people a day. It can hold around 365,000 gallons of water. It uses roughly one tank of chlorine a week. The pool was built as part of an initiative pushed by the Gallipolis Junior Women’s Club.

GALLIPOLIS — The Gallipolis Municipal Pool will be opening at noon Saturday and visitors may notice the remains of what was the toddler’s wading pool in its beginning stages of being fashioned into a sprinkler park.

“What I’d like to do, the baby pool has had a real bad water leak,” said City Manager Gene Greene. “We’ve lost a lot of water out of it over the years, so they closed it. So, the toddlers don’t have a place to play. I’ve looked at some of these other small municipalities where you go to manager’s meetings, they are focused on their big pool. They don’t have the money to go in and repair the pools. So they’re making things that you call sprinkler parks.”

Greene said they would like to fill in the old toddler’s pool, pour concrete over it and add water apparatuses, somewhat like the large pool’s mushroom fountain, that the toddlers could walk under and still enjoy a day of cooling off.

They pool holds roughly 365,000 gallons and may use up to a tank of chlorine a week. The pool gets filled before its opening date by several weeks to allow water to acclimate to hotter temperatures. The pool may see, on average, 70 to 80 visitors a day.

The pool’s normal operating hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Between 7-9 a.m. weekdays, the pool conducts an adult swim, while water walkers can use the pool between 5-6 p.m. Angell said water walking is good for people who want to exercise, help with physical rehabilitation or combat arthritis. Between 6-7 p.m. the pool plays host to water aerobics.

Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. are family literacy nights. Individuals can bring books to receive free admission. When a 15-minute break is reached, students are asked to read their book.

Daily admission is free for children 4 years and younger, $3 for students and $5 for adults. Season passes can be purchased for $75 per child and $80 per adult. Family passes, encompassing two adults in the same household as well as two children, are $140. A $10 fee is tacked on for every individual added to the pass. Private pool parties are $225.

Swimming lessons are $40 a session and lessons are two weeks long, Monday through Thursday. Lessons are held in June as well as July.

The pool first opened July 26, 1986. City officials said the Gallipolis Junior Women’s Club contributed donations for the pool’s construction and operation. She added that the pool was originally built on a tax levy. The women’s club was one of the main supporters pushing to get the pool’s operation off the ground.

For more information about the pool, call (740) 446-3483.

Dean Wright can be reached at (7400 446-2342, Ext. 2103.

The old wading pool at the Gallipolis Municipal Pool may potentially be replaced with sprinkler park.

The Gallipolis Municipal Pool may see on average 70 to 80 people a day. It can hold around 365,000 gallons of water. It uses roughly one tank of chlorine a week. The pool was built as part of an initiative pushed by the Gallipolis Junior Women’s Club.